advertisement

---

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) is churning out continuous-welded rail (CWR) from a new Indiana facility. Yesterday, the company announced it recently made the first shipments from a rail welding operation at its Columbia, Ind., steel mill.

The shipments comprised 81 strings of quarter-mile-long CWR. Each string included 17 80-foot rails provided by a customer.

Located to the west of the mill, the $15 million welding facility features holding and staging tables designed to store more than a trainload of finished strings, and rail spurs for deploying two long CWR trains for staging and loading.

SDI plans to offer rail-welding services on a contract basis to Class Is and other rail customers. The facility will weld rail provided by third parties and produced on-site at Steel Dynamics’ mill, which is expected to supply about 300,000 tons of rail annually.

“While this initial shipment involved welding 80-foot rail segments, we look forward to early next year, when we expect to produce and utilize our own 240- to 360- foot rails … to fabricate long rail strings,” said Paul Kotsenas, SDI’s sales manager for rail products, in a prepared statement.